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Knicks V Blazers - Home Opener [10/30/2010]

KNICKS VS BLAZERS

When Portland takes the floor at Madison Square Garden, they will be looking to build on their second win of the season, along with looking to close out an undefeated month of October. Of course the month of October has only featured two games, but there are plenty of things worse than a 2-0 start. In order to turn that 2-0 to a 3-0, and ensure no worse than a .500 record on the teamís first road trip, the Blazers will have to first go through one of the NBAís many new look teams. The Knicks were one of the teams not located in Miami that got the cold shoulder from LeBron James and ďthe Decision.Ē

Unlike a few other teams, the Clippers and the Nets, the Knicks did walk away from the summerís free agent free-for-all with a pretty solid pickup.
Amaríe Stoudemire was a perennial All-Star during his eight seasons with the Phoenix Suns, and has been First Team All-NBA, an Olympic Bronze Medalist, and on the short list of top power forwards in the Western Conference and the whole Association at least since the 2004-05 season. Although the authenticity of Stoudemireís Hebraic ancestry may be questionable, what isnít in question, and hasnít ever been in question, is his ability to dominate the Portland Trail Blazers. Stoudemire has made a business out of destroying Portland inside, and has long been the primary point of emphasis for the argument against LaMarcus Aldridge. The argument goes: How can LA be one of the most dominant power forwards in the west when he always, always gets flat out worked by Amaríe? Itís a good question, and one LA hopes to answer Saturday at MSG.

New York has split its opening two games of the season, falling to the Celtics 105-101 on Friday night in Boston, and beating the hapless Raptors 98-95 at their home opener Wednesday in Toronto. Stoudemire finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds in the win at Toronto and with 27 points and 8 rebounds in the loss to Boston. Amaríe isnít the only Knick that can fill up the stat sheet. Danilo Gallinari is a gunner from outside the three point line. In 2009-10, Gallinari launched 488 bombs, hitting 186. Gallinari was second only to Houstonís Aaron Brooks in both threes attempted and made. New York also has Wilson Chandler coming off the bench providing instant offense. Chandler scored 22 points in 29 minutes against Toronto.
Portland lost at MSG their last time there, at the beginning of the road trip that even Nata McMillan missed due to injury, but last yearís stats from that game are basically meaningless because not a single Knick from last seasonís starting lineup is in this seasonís starting lineup. David Lee is at Golden State, Chris Duhon is in Orlando, Al Harrington is in Denver, and Jared Jefferies is in Houston, leaving Wilson Chandler as the only Knick starter from 2009-10 even on the 2010-11 roster.

The Blazers will find their biggest advantage against New York in their depth. Stoudimire will get his, Raymond Felton is a competent but not great point guard who doesnít make a ton of mistakes, Iíve already spoken about Gallo and Chandler. Beyond those four players New York brings very little to the table. The Knicks start two rookies, Landry Fields and Russian import Timofey Mozgov, and after Chandler the most potent Knick off the bench has been Tony Douglas. Douglas scored 12 points in the loss to Boston and 10 points in the win in Toronto. Portland can, and will play 10 men, that should give them a serious advantage.

If the Blazers can keep Amaríe from having a crazy scoring and rebounding night, he can have one or the other but not both, and they keep the Knicks from hitting wide open threes, in last seasonís loss the discrepancy of made threes was 13-to-1 in favor of the home team, Portland should have a good chance at running away with a win on Saturday.

Portland got to play spoiler in Blake Griffinís professional debut. Although Saturday wonít be Amaríeís pro debut, it will be his first home game in Madison Square Garden. Of course that will give him and the Knicks all the more reason to get up for the win, this is after all a team that fancies themselves an Eastern Conference contender, but outside of Stoudemire, New York doesnít win any individual position. The Blazerís have yet to put together a full game that has looked fluid from start to finish. Saturday would be a great time to start.

KEY MATCH UP(S):

Felton V Miller. Miller is savvy.
Chandler v Batum. This is gonna be a clash.

X FACTOR:

Who else but the human X Factor? Fields Esq.

DEFENSIVE KEY(S):

Douglas and Turiaf. Making a mess for the opposition in the front & back courts.

QUESTIONS THAT NEED ANSWERING:

-Will Gallo find his form?
-Will Chandler maintain?
-Can STAT find his passing game and rebound as ferociously as he penetrates?
-Will Eddy Curry, in his utter famine, devour himself at last?
-Will The Gov be benched too early again?
-Will we shoot ourselves against the wall again?
-Will Camby register as many blocks as our team? No, he won't.

I would if I could, but we only have 2 seats and the section is usually packed....just with quiet ass people and fans of the opposing team. But if things continue the way they are in that section...I'll be joining you guys upstairs, lol.

Yeah I feel ya...The Garden on the lower level is gonna be filled with suits, I hate that. Remember that commercial years ago where the usher takes the real fans courtside with their crappy tixx and sends the suits who are there to be seen and get a business deal done all the way upstairs with their courtside seats? Yeah, I wish that were real...

The Key to the Knicks entire season is to win the games they should win, and this is one of them. Let's see if this is the same old Knicks we have been watching the past 10 years, or if this is indeed a brand new era.

Nice Game thread crazy8s....i think we're playing a better team but we can still win this game. Roy will rape us but if we can slow everyone else down then we got a shot at moving to 2 and 1.

Amare went up against a tough frontline last night and still scored 27 points. He should find it easier tonight against the Blazers even though they're no walk in the park with former Knick Marcus Camby starting at center for them.

Portland is a very very good team. They are better than us, we have to outplay them. We have to make the Blazers play up-tempo, make them play our style. Batum has looked really good the last two games for Portland, and everyone knows how good B-Roy is. Gallo NEEDS to have a big game. If he puts up 10 points or less, than we'll lose, Portland has weapons everywhere. I think STAT will have 25+ points if Alridge is guarding him, but he needs help. Hopefully Will the Thrill can keep up his stellar play, wish he'd drive more rather than settle for the 3's, but either way hes having a good start for the season.

SMMFH that this will be the first game I finally get to watch so far in our regular season. Anyway this game could get ugly if we come out lethargic. If we come to play we got a shot. Blazers are better than us so we had better bring some fkn energy tonight.

Blazers (we) are 2-0 this season and are looking to hit another 50+ win season. It is simply amazing how well the Blazers have been doing.

Guess what New York?

We have our same starting 5 with no new additions (excluding 2nd unit)

Roy, Aldridge, Batum, Camby and Miller.

Batum: A 21 year old rising star. Even through the playoffs we saw an injured Batum throw down ~20 points a game. He is deadly and an amazing defender. I don't see any Knicks players having a big night except for the big man inside. PS: BAHTUUUUUMMMM!!!!!

Roy: A scoring beast in the first half of the clippers game, finished with 21 (I believe) and went 0-8 in the second half. If our all-star can't make a bucket in the second half and still throwing down 21 points, how do you expect to win?

Camby: The guy is a solid player. He is becoming a veteran and has the hunger to win an NBA campionship more then ever. He wants wins and he wants them now. Not to mention, with Oden and Przybilla coming back, Camby is working harder then ever to show Mcmillian that he should not be a bench warmer. Expect Camby to OWN in rebounds tonight.

Miller: I'll admit, not a great fit for the blazers, and we're currently trying to trade him. He hates the offense we run but at the same time, he can drop 52 points when he wants, given this Miller is the type of player to ignore the coach and become a leathal scorer.

Aldridge: Has been working on his strength inside. I'll admit, Amar'e will show Aldridge w'sup. Given this, I think Aldridge will not have a big night due to the inside prescense of the big man

I really think Amar'e is going to drop a 35~40 point game and become a BEAST this game due to Portland not having their #1 draft pick G.O or Przybilla (AKA; THE TWIN TOWERS).